May 18, 2014

I figured I’d kind of been ignoring knitting, which is a bit of a problem on a knitting blog.

So, three goals for this year:

- I will finish 1 project a month and knit 5,000 yards

- I will buy no yarn before the ESK sale

- I will release 2 patterns this year

1. So, I made quick progress on the first goal and think I’m still on track but everything is WIPs at the moment.

I’m almost done with skein number 2 on my OWLS Cardigan. This yarn is wonderful to work with, but impossible to photograph. This is probably attempt number four. It shows the design, but not the color.

This little joy just needs to be blocked but our spare bed is covered with dishes. My stepson is coming soon so I better hustle if I want this blocked in the next couple months and moved from WIP to FO.

Sorry to disappoint you Melissa, but I did NOT get Basil done in time for Easter! My brain stopped working and I lost the ability to do simple math so the end of the tail was ripped out a couple times. When I realized he wasn’t getting done by Easter, I lost my momentum. Part of it that I’m really not looking forward to switching colors every three rounds on my 12 stitch rounds. And then doing it 4 times. I mean, second sock syndrome is nothing compared to second, third and fourth leg syndrome….

The one knit getting a lot of progress has been my socks and I’m guessing they will be done this weekend. With everything else not in a pick-up and drop without notice stage, I keep going to these socks, even during the week at work when I could be working on something more complicated. 21w

So I've done great about not buying any yarn.

Last week for my birthday I received two generous gift certificates. I decided that these were in no way a violation of the yarn diet. Because you can rationalize anything if you want. J Here are my lovelies:

The lovely yarns in the bottom picture - Madelinetosh Sock - are going to become Crackerjack. I have waited SO PATIENTLY for my birthday to buy this yarn. All these lovely yarns were bought at Eat.Sleep.Knit. You'll see I've added a link to ESK on the right and I get a little bit of yarnathon credit if you go to the website through that link.

3. Now for pattern release. I have been experimenting for the first time with knitting without patterns. Unfortunately, the patterns that have been kicking around in my head haven’t worked out as well on the needles.

I’m still really struggling to decide if doubled knitted fabric is really that much better than two pieces whipstitched together. Thoughts? I did complete one item without a pattern and haven’t blogged about it so you all get one last picture.

I’m not happy with the way this hat turned out. I wanted a more feminine look for the brim and the lace lines weren’t right. I am, however, super excited by how well the decreases worked out so it would stay in pattern and finish with an awesome star on top! But I won’t be writing this one up, I don’t think. Maybe I’ll tweak it and try again but I have some baby patterns to complete first!

May 08, 2014

Finally on a break from China Bayles! I'm now reading Unraveled, a knitting mystery. It's another cozy mystery. The author is CLEARLY a fan of eyelash yarn which is something that has never made sense to me. But the plots are fun and crime fighting that happens around a knitting circle is just amusing.

I'm still working on Wiggle's present but I've hit a design roadblock. I'd appreciate your thoughts on this one. I'm trying double-knitting something and it's quite slow. I'm only trying to make the item thicker so I could knit two identical pieces and whipstitch them together. What do you think? As you can see below, I switched from double knitting to single fabric. The obvious effect is that the fabric is pulling in more so I'll need more stitches to get the same dimensions. But I'm not sure it effects the finished product.

Thoughts?

I really need to figure this out as Wiggle's birthday is later this month! Doesn't he look like he needs a toy?